2021.04.0604:54:00UTC+00Australia Central Bank Maintains Key Rate

Australia's central bank left its current policy settings unchanged on Tuesday, as widely expected.

The policy board of the Reserve Bank of Australia headed by Governor Philip Lowe decided to retain its cash rate at a record low of 0.10 percent.

The central bank retained the target yield on the 3-year Australian government bond at around 0.1 percent and also maintained the parameters of the Term Funding Facility and the government bond purchase programme.

The bank said the initial A$100 billion government bond purchase program is almost complete and the second A$100 billion program will commence next week.

"The Board will not increase the cash rate until actual inflation is sustainably within the 2 to 3 percent target range. For this to occur, wages growth will have to be materially higher than it is currently," the bank said.

This will require significant gains in employment and a return to a tight labor market. The board does not expect these conditions to be met until 2024 at the earliest, RBA added.